Tourists travel to Alaska from all over the world to view stunning natural attractions and learn about the 49th state’s history.
Tour operators in the small Southeast Alaska town of Wrangell say they can give an intimate and authentic experience unlike other towns.
The Seaborne cruise ship docked in Wrangell on a Tuesday morning.
Roughly 400 passengers spent the day in the tiny island town.
A dozen people, mostly older couples, took a three-hour tour.
“This one intrigued us, because it was on a much smaller ship and we could get into lovely places like Wrangell, that we have not seen before,” said Judy Vineyard, who’s from Arizona and has been to Alaska five times. She loves whale watching.
The cruise passengers say they have already been to Juneau and other small southeast towns such as Haines and Sitka.
Some even started their journey in tourist hot spots like Seward and Denali.
Some tourists wander the island with a map in hand.
“I thought it was going to be not as touristy. Which is delightful,” Vineyard said. “I’m sure you want it to grow and you want it to get more touristy. But when you’ve been to other places and there’s so many people walking around, and it is just one little tourist shop after another, this is just a breath of fresh air.”
Alaska Waters tour guide Brooke Leslie grew up and lives in Wrangell.
On the Island Heritage Tour, she takes guests on the Tlingit history of the island.
At Chief Shakes’ Tribal House, Virginia Oliver and Arthur Larsen, in partnership with the Wrangell Cooperative Association, show off regalia and tell Native stories.
Oliver tells a funny but gruesome story about Raven.
Oliver and Larsen are active members in the local tribe, and continue to teach and study Tlingit culture in town and around Southeast.
The city museum gives a comprehensive take of the town’s history.
Leslie is able to point out something from her own family history in the museum: a photo of her grandpa as a teenager on Wrangell’s basketball team. And another one of him smoking salmon.
“Not everyone gets to say their grandpa is in a museum,” Leslie said.
In a super small town, maybe it’s not that surprising to see your grandpa in the museum, playing basketball and smoking salmon.
But Leslie said a similary instance won’t happen with tour guides everywhere in Alaska.
“(Tourists) are going to be on tours with people that are just college students that are in Alaska for the summer,” said Leslie, who is a part of the community.
The tourists dig that. They don’t just ask her about Tlingit history, they ask her about her life today.
“We all live a very subsistence way of life, and we actually live in Alaska,” she said. “That in itself is unique.”
The last stop of the day is Petroglyph Beach, where Native rock carvings are scattered on the ground.
Vineyard is trailing behind the group. She’s interested in something else.
“I’m collecting sea glass. We collect it all over the world wherever we go,” she said. “I thought wouldn’t it be something if there was sea glass here, and there is. It’s wherever you know they had a garbage dump.”
Even if Wrangell’s Front Street isn’t littered with gift shops, Vineyard was still able to get a souvenir.
She buys a few garnet stones from a young girl with gift shop set up by the beach, just outside her house.
